Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
(January 29, 1860 – July 15, 1904) was a Russian physician, dramatist
and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short
stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and
his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.
Chekhov practised as a doctor throughout most of his literary career:
"Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my
mistress." (Click
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Any idiot can face a crisis. It's this day-to-day living that wears you
out.

He who doesn’t know how to be a servant should never be allowed to be a
master; the interests of public life are alien to anyone who is unable
to enjoy others’ successes, and such a person should never be entrusted
with public affairs.

I don't know anything about the ballet; all I know is that during the
intermission the ballerinas stink like horses.

If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the
following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.

If you are afraid of loneliness, don't marry.

It is easier to ask of the poor than of the rich.

It is unfortunate that we try to solve the simplest questions cleverly,
and therefore make them unusually complicated. We should seek a simple
solution.

Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common
hatred for something.

Lying is the same as alcoholism. Liars prevaricate even on their
deathbeds.

Man is what he believes.

Money, like vodka, turns a person into an eccentric.

Of course politics is an interesting and engrossing thing. It offers no
immutable laws, nearly always prevaricates, but as far as blather and
sharpening the mind go, it provides inexhaustible material.

One can prove or refute anything at all with words. Soon people will
perfect language technology to such an extent that they’ll be proving
with mathematical precision that twice two is seven.

One must speak about serious things seriously.

Solomon made a great mistake when he asked for wisdom.

The bourgeoisie loves so-called “positive” types and novels with happy
endings since they lull one into thinking that it is fine to
simultaneously acquire capital and maintain one’s innocence, to be a
beast and still be happy.

The government is not God. It does not have the right to take away that
which it can’t return even if it wants to.

The more refined one is, the more unhappy.

The sea has neither meaning nor pity.

The world is a fine place. The only thing wrong with it is us. How
little justice and humility there is in us, how poorly we understand
patriotism!

They say that in the end truth will triumph, but it's a lie.

Those who come a hundred or two hundred years after us will despise us
for having lived our lives so stupidly and tastelessly. Perhaps they’ll
find a means to be happy.

When a person doesn’t understand something, he feels internal discord:
however he doesn’t search for that discord in himself, as he should, but
searches outside of himself. Thence a war develops with that which he
doesn’t understand.

When a thinking man reaches maturity and attains to full consciousness
he cannot help feeling that he is in a trap from which there is no
escape.